Fault Lines: A Memoir (2nd Edition) (The Cross-Cultural Memoir Series) [SPECIAL EDITION] (Paperback)

by Meena Alexander (Author), Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Foreword)
Key Phrases: narrow gate, love apple tree, mango leaf, Fault Lines, New York City, Arabian Sea (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The reminiscences of this Indian-born poet and novelist ( Nampally Road ) are both evocative and moving, and she presents them in a circular yet completely logical fashion; often they are connected more through theme or meaning than chronology. As she examines issues of identity and a sense of displacement in both her own life and those of her children, her most perceptive moments come in an examination of life in New York, "the great island city where the poor cry out of tunnels." There her son answers a doorman's question--"What are you?"--by claiming to be a Jedi knight, and her daughter's drawing of her family is confused by a preschool teacher who seems not to know the difference between Indian and Native American. Alexander revels in metaphors that align perfectly with their particular subjects; recognition of the way her marriage validates her in the eyes of her family cuts "like a metallic piece in a too-tight brassiere," and ethnicity is "a violence from within that resists . . . fracturing." Although Alexander has lived in many places, including the Sudan and England, and done many things, she finds common ground in her expressive language.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
One of three daughters of a civil servant in India, Alexander spent a large share of her time traveling to join or rejoin relatives in Allahabad (her birthplace), Tiruvella, Kerala, Khartoum, and England. From the age of five, she began crossing cultural and geographical borders on three continents, at the same time crossing over the "fault lines" created by the shifting ground of loyalties and identities underneath. Never, though, does Alexander surrender her loyalty to her grandfather Ilya, who believes in social equality in principle but stays enmeshed in the rigid class system of postcolonial India, or to her mother, who nudges her to fulfill an Indian woman's traditional duties. Alexander ( Nampally Road , Mercury House, 1991, and Women in Romanticism , B&N Imports, 1989) writes about replenishing her spiritual self through her poetry; she draws continuously on the silken threads that make up who she is and how she sees the world. This is an enchanting, beautifully written memoir, and is highly recommended for academic and public libraries that wish to broaden their collections in autobiography and multicultural literature.
- Lisa Nussbaum, Euclid P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: The Feminist Press at CUNY; 2 Rev Exp edition (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558614540
• ISBN-13: 978-1558614543
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #851,606 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, April 30, 2000

By	Andrew J Jepsen (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, North America, Earth, Milky Way) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fault Lines: A Memoir (The Cross-Cultural Memoir Series) (Paperback)

As a student and a poet, I was first introduced to Meena Alexander when I was reading an example of what to expect on an Ap test (in English). I started to actually pay attention and read throught the diction and syntax to see what lay beneath, and what I say was magnificent. This book is a collectors piece for psychologists and th ecommon person. After all, who has not asked "Who am I?" This book answers that question for Meena, and if you read it yourself, it may provide a simple answer as well. But don't count on it, for Fault Lines shows us the confliction through conflicting images an example of Humanity itself.